Is Brady having some subpar games? Or is he physically declining.

[SVN]

 

[TheRainMaker]

Coaches need to turn down the volume on Brady's hearing aid because every little thump and grunt sounds like a jail break ambush to him. He's out their sparring with ghosts

Good one.

 

[signbabybrady]

It seems like Brady can’t carry a bad team like he used to.

Hope your being sarcastic.

7-3 and
2,748
17
7
94.7
Seems to be carrying this team again to me.

 

[Soliel]

A good barometer will be the next three games. I can’t see enough of anything really so far. One game it’s 95 degrees against the top defense at that time. Yesterday, too much went wrong too fast to really put anything in to it. However, there’s more chance of eventual acceptance of this if we start losing games to those we should beat down the stretch. The lions game is an anomaly that not even Steven hawking could figure out. I guess I’d say the bottom line is they are not at playoff level seriousness and as a gelled team.

 

[Boomer B]

I think it’s a few different things

- the line was horrible yesterday. He didn’t have time to go through his progressions and was forcing it to Gordon and Edelman all day

- lack of weapons. The ankle and back have severely limited Gronk all year. Even when he played he’s looked like a shell of his former self. Gordon is a good player but he doesn’t get much separation. He’s a poor mans Michael Irvin. Same body type but not separating from coverage. Hogan, Patterson, and Dorsett are number 4 options for a reason (they aren’t great). That leaves Edelman, he’s a chain mover, but not quite as good as he was a few years ago.

There’s a reason the Pats were WR shopping at the deadline. As much as some weren’t Cooks fans, I thought he made a big impact on the O last year. He demanded safety help over the top which opened up the underneath routes. We have no one who demands safety help and teams can cloud the shorter areas. That leaves Brady throwing up a jump ball for Gordon.

- I think if Gronk can get somewhat healthy and close to what he was it will do wonders for the O. Also getting Michel back to what he was earlier this year will be a big factor. Need to run the ball well to set up play action. If these 2 things happen this offense can be very effective.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Hope your being sarcastic.

5-3 and
2,748
17
7
94.7
Seems to be carrying this team again to me.

What does 5-3 mean?

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

If you go to the gamelogs section of Tom Brady's profootball reference page
Tom Brady Career Game Log | Pro-Football-Reference.com

If you sort by passer rating, worst to best, you find that yesterday's game was the 43nd-worst regular season start of Tom's career (263 games). Passer rating is imperfect, I know, but you have to pick SOMETHING.

I don't recall the sky falling after any of the 42 other games.

Maybe this time is different, but it seems unlikely.

 

[TheRainMaker]

There’s a reason the Pats were WR shopping at the deadline. As much as some weren’t Cooks fans, I thought he made a big impact on the O last year. He demanded safety help over the top which opened up the underneath routes. We have no one who demands safety help and teams can cloud the shorter areas. That leaves Brady throwing up a jump ball for Gordon.

My observation from Cooks last year was a guy who was a little frustrated in this offense. I wasn’t a fan on how the Pats used him last year. He seemed like another version of Edelman. Too many short routes rather than cutting him loose and going more vertically. When he did this with the Pats, he made an impact. He’s found a home with the Rams for sure.

 

[Hyped]

I believe there is some decline..I mean after all what Brady did in 2014-2017 was nothing short of Amazing (e.g. throwing for almost 1K yards the last two superbowls, playing in 3 of 4 superbowls, losing an AFC title game by 2 points because of Gostkowski's miss and Collins not covering a TE double move down the seam TWICE, and etc...).

Physically...he can still play this game. He never had a cannon arm....but his footwork is still there, IMO. His throws seem a bit more off than usual....but that is only because he has been HIGHLY ACCURATE over the years.

I am more worried about his read progression and indecisiveness, but am holding out hope that it's more personnel/match up based than him losing his "mental edge".

 

[masterbouncer]

His receivers don’t create instant separation. Hogan and Edelman look a step or two slower than they used to be, Gronk is slow/hurt, Dorsett sucks, Cooks is in LA and Amendola is in Miami.

well Dorsett might not be a WR1, however he could get some more looks from brady and for sure will not have opponents CB1 all over him if Gordon, Edelman and Gronk are out there...just need to check it down to him and use him bit more

since the DET game Dorsett caught 13 out of 16 tgt, 81% Ctch% for 136 yds and 1 TD, for the complete year it's 25 catches on 30 tgts, 83% Ctch% for 246yds and 2TD, well at least he caught almost everything thrown to him, but yeah he is pure s***

can't use him, not reliable at all

 

[libra957]

Tom just need to freshen up, that was a long stretch of consecutive games. I personally prefer that we morph into a run first team to accommodate him but I don't think we have the personnel to pull it off.

 

[dannydyn]

He's fine. There's only 3 targets on this team trustworthy and we've barely had any games with the 3 on the field.

While I'm with you in that this is just a blip and Brady is fine, I beg to differ with you on the "only 3 targets" argument.

How many real, legit targets does Mahomes have? How about Brees? Goff?

Between Gordon, Edelman, Gronk, White, Hogan, Dorsett, Michel, and even Peterson, this offense should be able to produce big time especially with TB driving.

 

[dannydyn]

Brady has gone from locking onto Gronk to locking onto Gordon. In the past few games there have been several (dropped) throws into double and even triple coverage made at Gordon where replay showed other players were wide open.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I’ve been wondering about this too.

Baseball broadcasts tells how many drips of urine are in each stream for each microsecond a ballplaywr pees for. Seriously, they measure all the velocity, MPH, peak height, etc.

Strange there is nothing close to this in football. Just a bunch of conflicting opinions that seem equally valid (or more accurately, invalid.)

I’d like to know if Brady is actually losing velocity, etc. From what I can tell he looks like the same guy with a really shaky group or receivers and lacks confidence, leading to a lot of throwalways that many fans mistake for bad passes. This is the first time his primary target came midseason. And without Gronk, his production has always been pretty far below with Gronk.

So, a lot of unknowns. But I completely disagree about seeing an obvious problem with his velocity with the naked eye. He’s always had a lot of games like this and we act like the offense/Brady never struggled prior to this year. He has a passer rating of around 95 with a ton of huge challenges. He has 7 INTs, 4 being real ones, in 10 games.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he is declining, but I just have not seen actual evidence of it.

 

[Gronkowski123]

McDaniels ****ty play calling doesn't help.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

While I'm with you in that this is just a blip and Brady is fine, I beg to differ with you on the "only 3 targets" argument.

How many real, legit targets does Mahomes have? How about Brees? Goff?

Between Gordon, Edelman, Gronk, White, Hogan, Dorsett, Michel, and even Peterson, this offense should be able to produce big time especially with TB driving.

You may be mistaking the reputation of these players for their actual skills at this point in their career.

First, Gronk has been a huge factor. He clearly is not GRONK when he has played.

Gordon has done exceptionally well considering, and I emphasize considering, he has been on the team six weeks. But this is a tough adjustment on the fly.

Hogan? This isn’t 2016, it’s 2018. What you saw then and what you see now are different things.

Dorsett? Should I bother addressing this?

Edelman was losing a step towards the end of 2016. He’s a recovered ACL and two years from that. He is solid but no longer a dominant player.

Patterson? Come on dude.


This receiving group is certainly not the worst in the league, but it has a lot of major question marks and inconsistencies. The offense IS doing fine overall, just not yesterday.

 

[Tony2046]

I think there’s something going on. Age? Unreported injury? Who knows? But there have been noticeably more “receiver is open at short/medium range and the ball is 3 feet to the right. Or 4 feet short.” passes, even when he’s not under pressure, this year.

For me a telling one this week was the pass to White near the sideline that Fouts claimed was a “throwaway”. If it was a throwaway that’s odd because White was open enough that Brady in the past would have rifled it in there. And if it wasn’t a throwaway it was a stunningly bad throw.

Yes that was a bad throw. No doubt about it.

But tough to analyze Brady's performance when he was, at times, missing 4 of his pass blocking starters. Allen, Brown, Mason and Gronk. That's just nuts against one of the top defenses in the league.

I think his or JM's failure was to key in on Jules and White all freaking game when it seemed clear that the Titans were trying to take them away.

Anyway I don't think anyone can use this game as somekind of Cliff evidence.

 

[sean10mm]

I think this game is partly an outlier since all 3 phases were trash, both the run and the pass were trash, the OL stunk in all phases, special teams stunk, and so on. Total team loss top to bottom.

I do think even at its best, this offense has looked kind of disjointed, not so much because of terrible absolute talent, but because you never know who is actually playing from week to week. There has been a huge lack of continuity in the offense, and I think that's hurt the team more than any one particular injury or any one guy declining.

The defense on the other hand simply doesn't have the talent in the front 7 to be consistently good. They're too slow to cope with mobile QBs, TEs and receiving backs, and too easily punked by simple misdirection on run plays.

It's funny, Brady looked way worse in 2013 than he does now. Basically every stat was worse and he looked cooked. That, uh, didn't pan out as we know.

 

[PP2]

When Brady has had time and space to execute proper mechanics, including stepping into his throws, his throws have been on the money. The zip and accuracy is still there.

But when he's pushed off his spot, or he is rushed or senses a rush, his mechanics turn crappy.

 

[Arialgg]

I think this game is partly an outlier since all 3 phases were trash, both the run and the pass were trash, the OL stunk in all phases, special teams stunk, and so on. Total team loss top to bottom.

I do think even at its best, this offense has looked kind of disjointed, not so much because of terrible absolute talent, but because you never know who is actually playing from week to week. There has been a huge lack of continuity in the offense, and I think that's hurt the team more than any one particular injury or any one guy declining.

The defense on the other hand simply doesn't have the talent in the front 7 to be consistently good. They're too slow to cope with mobile QBs, TEs and receiving backs, and too easily punked by simple misdirection on run plays.

It's funny, Brady looked way worse in 2013 than he does now. Basically every stat was worse and he looked cooked. That, uh, didn't pan out as we know.

I was just thinking this as I read through the thread- remember 2013! He was seeing ghosts- dancing around, head scratching decisions.... he came around though.
I do think he tries harder than ever to not get hit- goes down pretty quick, which is probably due to knowing one wrong hit will end his career. It’s not like if he’s out for any extended time he’s going to have a job waiting- at 41 it’ll be over.